The present invention relates to a paper termination detecting apparatus for detecting a near end of a paper roll to be supplied to a printer, that is, for detecting when a paper roll is nearly terminated.
This type of paper termination detecting apparatus is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication Nos. Sho. 61-3872 and Hei. 1-14597. In the disclosed apparatus, a detecting piece constantly urges the side of a roll of print paper. When an amount of the paper roll remaining to be used for printing is reduced to below a predetermined amount of paper, the detecting piece is put in a space of the core part of the paper roll. According to that operation, a detecting switch operates and recognizes the amount of the residual paper roll being small.
The conventional apparatus suffers from the following disadvantage. During the feeding of the paper roll to a printer, the paper roll is swung or moved toward the printer where paper feeding means is provided, and therefore, the paper roll is frequently located out of a desired detecting position where the detecting piece is placed. Specifically, when the paper roll is put out of the desired detecting position, a detecting lever having the detecting piece is out of the side of the paper roll. At this time, the detecting lever is turned as in case where the detecting piece is put into the core space of the paper roll. Then, the detecting switch operates. Though a sufficient amount of the paper still remains in the paper roll container, the paper termination detecting apparatus mistakenly operates to produce an incorrect amount of the residual print paper. The result allows the wasteful use of the paper.